Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

An organizational website for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, an organization advocating for the benefit of US veterans.

Seeking to grow the number of members of their community, the client was looking for an updated website that prioritizes community sign ups, donations, easier access for the press and more visibility for their programs and campaigns.

I worked closely with the Director of Content Strategy and User Experience on this project. He led the content strategy and information architecture while I focused on wireframing and adapting for responsive.

We focused on Join and Donation templates, the Press section and Programs and Campaigns.

Requirements Gathering

My involvement on the project began as Information Architecture was wrapping. My first step was to determine the pieces of content necessary for each template. With the templates already identified, I combined specific requests the client had made for certain templates along with their existing content and my best thoughts for what to include.

Join Module

The primary ask from the client was to increase their number of members and boost donations. Working closely with our Director of Content Strategy and User Experience, we crafted a sign-up module that could be used across the site and adapted easily for mobile. The module uses the progression of panels, asking the user to enter manageable chunks of information, incrementally, and capturing that information as they move through the panels.

Planning

I started with a simple list of user information the organization wanted to collect. I then grouped the pieces of information into separate panels. And finally I mapped the simple skip logic needed on panel three using post-its.

Low-fi Sketching

I began with really low-fi sketches, mapping out the general structure of the panels using potential copy, questions and form input fields. I then moved through a second round of sketching focusing a little more on layout and aesthetics.

Join Module Prototyping

Creating the prototype based on the sketches was essentially one to one. The panels were kept simple to ensure the user wouldn't be overwhelmed. With the questions and form fields well established following all the planning, prototyping was relatively easy.

Iterating

The process for the rest of the website was similar, but didn't need to be quite as in depth. Using the lists of content for each template, I moved directly to sketching for each template.

Templates

Header

We knew the main navigation would be simple. I didn't include the header in any of my sketches. My boss and I collaborated on the header once we began prototyping in Axure. We experimented with at least 13 options before settling on the simplest option.

Homepage

We originally suggested a homepage that was a fluid, full width looping video clip with a link to view the full length video. Shortly before the end of the design phase, the client decided that approach was too simple and there should be more content on the homepage. We scrambled and came up with six options for the client to review, ultimately settling on one.

The Final Prototype

Once I moved many of my sketches into Axure, there weren't many substantial revisions to the prototypes. Many templates needed one or maybe two rounds of client feedback to bring them to final.

Development & Beyond

Working with the developer was a breeze on this project. Unfortunately shortly before development began, the client revised the budget amount and they had to limit the feature set.

Throughout development I was the main point of contact for the developer, often answering small questions and clarifying how the site should be developed. The site launched, as scheduled, on Veterans Day in 2014.

The client has seen donations and member signups rise since launch and they're hoping to re-engage on development to complete the full build.